It's a Bad Day for Sharks

[MMMariah]

The media is doing what it does best when it comes to sharks....telling everyone that they are man-eating predators who "attack" swimmers. All of that couldn't be less true. Sharks are opportunity feeders and rarely ever hunt down and work for their food. They eat the injured or freshly dead fish or sea lions. They have good eye sight but in the summer when the water warms up there are algae blooms that give the water murkiness that makes it hard for them to see. They have very sensitive receptors on their noses so if they can't see something that's flailing on the surface they'll take a bite to see what it is. 99% of all shark attacks are never more than a single bite. The problem is many of the shark bites are so severe that people bleed to death before they can get help or they lose limbs which is what happened yesterday in North Carolina.

The fish & wildlife will be killing sharks on the NC coast now to try and get the "man eating sharks" before they attack more swimmers. There will be hysteria and people will blame the sharks when in reality its our fault. We have over-fished the oceans and taken away their food supply forcing them to come in closer for food. We wonder out into their domain and then blame them when they simply do as they have been doing for millions of years instinctively.

If sharks were man eaters then going into the ocean would be suicide because sharks feed in routines. They return to where the food is. Yet hundreds of millions of people swim in the oceans every year and a handful of people ever even see one much less get "attacked" which is a bullshit description. Sharks aren't attacking anyone. Attacking is aggressive and intentional which a shark thinking it's eating is certainly not.

I am very sad that the waters along the NC coastline are going to be fished to kill as many sharks as possible because 3 people out of hundreds of thousands were mistaken for food in murky water. Humans kill over 100,000,000 sharks every year which is sickening and is destroying the ocean's ecology.

 

[Jack Davenport]

I surf and will continue to until I am an old man if possible. Why does everything have to be confrontational and everyone else's opinion make them the idiots? Right now in the last couple of days your chances of being attacked by a shark in the SE North Carolina coastal waters have increased significantly. That will not be the case forever but at the moment something is going on with migration of fish or sharks and they have attacked 2 kids in shallow water and almost killed them. Nobody said that sharks seek out humans. I bet you wouldn't walk out into chest high water on Oak Island NC at this very moment. Nobody right now would.

 

[assari]

I blame the Jaws movie.

It gave a false impressions of sharks.

 

[MMMariah]

absolutely!!!!!!!!! O M G Assari You made some sense for once!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MMMariah]

I would do it right now without hesitating because I KNOW the reality of it. I have jumped into the water off of my boat with a 6 foot bull shark swimming around it.

Over fishing is the most likely cause. they come in closer because the fish are gone or the shrimp that the fish eat are gone so the fish moved on in search of other food.

I didn't say you claimed that the sharks were seeking out people but read the posts below yours. People see sharks as dangerous to people and they aren't. The media has made sharks into man eaters. Shark week attempts to educated people on sharks and then immediately has a segment about "Man Eating Sharks" which is bullshit. to be afraid of going into the ocean because of sharks like Petra said is purely driven by bad information and fear mongering.

Sharks do NOT "attack" anyone. You keep using that word but it's inaccurate. You pride yourself on your education and your smarts, you should put them to use in this situation. Or wait...please don't tell me that you have no issue with man killing 100 million sharks a year too????????? For fuck's sake please don't tell me that.

 

[MMMariah]

There's an island in Hawaii where every year at the exact same time the Albatross go to lay eggs and have their young. As the young birds begin to try to fly they run down the beach towards the surf and give it a go. Every year at the exact same time Tiger sharks come and sit facing the beach waiting for the young Albatross to make their feeble first attempts to fly. When the birds that aren't eaten finally fly away the tiger sharks leave until the following year.

The point is very clear: If sharks liked to eat people they would do the same thing. They would sit and wait for them to walk out into the water and they would eat them, plain and simple. Swimming in the ocean would be sure suicide. But its not.

I am a full-blown shark activist and I get sick when this happens because they will send out hillbilly's in boats to catch every shark on the coast that they can and kill them all hoping to get the sharks that bit these kids. Its fucked up and its not fair and its ignorant.

 

[MMMariah]

This photo is in the classroom at the UNEXSO shark lab in Bimini Bahamas which is considered to be one of the most important research facilities in the world. The Bahamas is one of the very few shark sanctuaries that actually enforces it. No shark fishing is permitted and absolutely no long-line fishing which is horrible for any body of water because for every 1 pound of fish caught that's sent to market there is 3 times that much caught killed & discarded.
If you want to challenge me on shark knowledge I wanna see your photo at ANY shark lab in the world please.



I have zero fear of sharks. I swim with them every change I have and never am I afraid. I respect them but they are far more weary of me than I am of them.

 

[Jack Davenport]

This photo is in the classroom at the UNEXSO shark lab in Bimini Bahamas which is considered to be one of the most important research facilities in the world. The Bahamas is one of the very few shark sanctuaries that actually enforces it. No shark fishing is permitted and absolutely no long-line fishing which is horrible for any body of water because for every 1 pound of fish caught that's sent to market there is 3 times that much caught killed & discarded.
If you want to challenge me on shark knowledge I wanna see your photo at ANY shark lab in the world please.

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I have zero fear of sharks. I swim with them every change I have and never am I afraid. I respect them but they are far more weary of me than I am of them.
View attachment 434487

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My experience with sharks which fortunately has been very limited comes from surfing since I was 12.
I am no expert and never claimed to be.

Me and a few others have had a few run ins with them . My buddy's Rocketfish was chopped in half by a 8 foot Hammerhead.

You say you have no fear of sharks but you have a video on your Foodie thread where you are goofing off with friends in the water and a dude swims up under you and grabs your leg and you say " I thought it was a shark! as you are losing your mind .

 

[BCT]

Maybe we should pet them like Dolphins then?

 

[MMMariah]

I actually thought it was an alligator. I said shark because I wasn't thinking. I was in a river and knew there were no sharks. But when something grabs your leg it scares the shit out of you no matter who you are.

I actually study sharks and have tried to learn as much about them as possible. I did a dive feeding sharks and a full interview with Cristina Zenato in the Bahamas but the memory card was corrupt and the video was lost. I bought a new camera with 2 slots with sequesntial and backup recording with a built-in backup backup hard drive after that. Never again.

Do YOU pet dolphins? I have pet wild dolphins in Curacao and sharks before actually.

 

[Little Red Wagon Repairman]

I blame the Jaws movie.

It gave a false impressions of sharks.


View attachment 434481

Robert Shaw was right. He was bitten in half by a shark in 1975. He held on until he died in 1978 during World War 2 after a mission to raid and destroy a bridge vital to enemy strategy only rising from the dead once to become a Russian general who defects to America and together with his CIA handler Harry Wargrave they plan an operation meant to reveal the KGB agents in Europe. The die was cast with that shark though as he was never able to get after it again in any of the sequels. How I wish Robert Shaw was still alive and Richard Dreyfuss died during the Avalanche Express instead.

 

[Jack Davenport]

^^^^^^.
One of the greatest scenes in cinematic history .

 

[sean miguel]

Maybe we should pet them like Dolphins then?

lol with my bloody stump.


I don't think sharks should be killed en masse because they're "man eaters" but you're damn right I fear them. Just like I would a crocodile, a hippo, a constrictor etc., especially in their natural environment. Whether a shark intended to take a bite out of you or not is academic when you're being fitted for the latest and greatest in prosthetics.

 

[Jack Davenport]

This is where I draw the line with this PC shit. So now we can't refer to 2 kids having limbs gnawed off as an attack? And what about this Finophobia that the media is promoting? Jeezus that great conservative Savanah Guthrie is calling it an attack. You think she is promoting the killing of sharks en masse? If a starving Grizzly Bear sees me and his stomach is rumbling he is going to attack, drag me into the woods and scarf down.

And that ferocious shark in that tank looks like the docile nurse shark.

 

[Little Red Wagon Repairman]

Let's blame these shark caused disasters on Global Warming and call it a day. My toilet backed up the other day. Global Warming. That's right. With the scarcity of water because of climate change I was dehydrated and my stool was too solid and dense to make its way through the plumbing. Let's join hands so I never have to bust out with the plunger again.

 

[Little Red Wagon Repairman]

^^^^^^.
One of the greatest scenes in cinematic history .

Robert Shaw was a chubby-chaser who married a skinny lady. He musta liked her personality because, on their first date, he told her...

"Aye... Yer gonna need a bigger butt!"

 

[Jack Davenport]

It always bothered me that Quint served on the Indianapolis but for some reason had this Irish accent. They never explained if maybe they had exchange sailors from The Royal Navy?

The character of Quint should have sounded more like Ted Kennedy than Bono.

 

[Bribi1]

Get a pet shark if you want, but sharks are dangerous and do attack.
That's a fact, not an opinion. Hundreds and thousands of example.
Who cares why, they do.

 

[larss]

Most shark species are pretty timid when it comes to humans. The Great White, Bull and Tiger sharks (from memory) are the ones that should be avoided for safety's sake especially in shallow water. In deep water, try not to look like a seal.

 

[Little Red Wagon Repairman]

The NAACP buffoon lady should pretend to be a shark now so she can save them from people racist against sharks. Hope she doesn't harpoon the Great White ones in the back. Issues...

"WE SHALL OVERCOOO'OOOME!"